Growing up in Iowa City in the 70's I remember a lot of folks doing "Deadheads and Suckers" (Particularly Art Rosenbaum & Doug Freeman and Don Lange)Does any body know of any recorded versions of the song (any old Hill billy 78??) or what exactly is a "deadhead" - is it just a derogatory (sp) term or does it have some historic significance. Thanks Guys !!!!!

The Randomhouse Dictionary of American Slang has nearly two full pages regarding "deadhead."

The most common usage is a person admitted free to a theater or concert....a non-revenue generating head-in-the-audience.

I personally associate it with public fans of The Greatful Dead and more specifically, the tie-dyed crowd of miscellaneous, merchants, scammers, drug-purveyors (acid), and free-loaders who trooped across country following the band with a St. Vitus Dance, pilgramage type fervor.

Seeing the Thread Title "Deadheads & Suckers" I was expecting some discourse on Roses, in which context: Deadhead: remove blooms once they are wilting so that they do not take nutrition from the plant Sucker: an additional stem or shoot rising from below ground level, often taking sustenance from the main plant with little chance of providing a healthy bloom

The likely first recording of this song was by "Crockett Ward and His Boys" from Virginia (Okeh 45179). It was recorded on September 26, 1927. Ward and his "boys" (i.e. sons)later became the anchors of the Virginia based string band called the Bogtrotters. As the Bogtrotters they recorded "Deadheads..." again. See the Folk Music Index link above.

Some lines (Outshine the sun) come from old gospel-spiritual songs. I would like a better explanation of the song. It seems to be parts of two songs, the last verses from a religious song related to Beulah Land. Are deadheads those who refused to fight?

The reference to truckers deadheading applied first to railroading; the term appeared in print in 1911.

I did it for several years. Learned it from the late and great PAT DUNFORD. Pat learned it from WADE WARD.

Deadheads and suckers--how can you live, How can you live, how can you live, Deadheads and suckers how can you live When good men are dying every day.

Light in the graveyard outshines the sun, Outshines the sun, outshines the sun, The light in the graveyard outshines the sun, OLh, babe, don't you want to go?

Mighty happy meetin'--don't you want to go, Don't you want to go, don't you want to go, Mighty happy meeting---don't you want to go, O, babe, lets us all go.

might've been more but that's all I recall right now.

PAT DUNFORD's was definitely my favorite version of this good song.

Deadheads and suckers are definitely negative value judgments on the people being judged. You might as well call them "assholes and bastards". Has nothing to do with the Grateful Dead or driving a truck empty back from a one way haul. These definitions are "now"----but the way they were used in the song was "THEN". It serves very little purpose to look at old songs and find modern terms housed therein.

Well the lyrics are appreciated but they are generic enough that they really cast no light on what these aspersions mean -- although my guess would be "blockheads" and "parasites", probably with an old political context.

Any evidence of this song before 1927? Except for the deadheads and suckers verse, the other four (see rich r posting, link above) are either fill, floaters or meaningless with reference to the first verse. The first verse is meaningless as well, unless some event can be tied to these deadheads, blockheads, suckers, whatever. In the other verses, some guy doesn't know what to do (rich r) or wants to go somewhere (Thieme).

As it stands, the lyrics are nonsense and the song is useless. The music apparently has been used for better lyrics- perhaps Mainer's, which have not yet been posted.

Sorry Art ? a date other than the 1970's, given by the originator ? and the lyrics helps out?here are a handful from dozens and dozens available.

deadheadn.1. a person admitted free to a theater, sporting event, hotel, etc. 1841Spirit of Times (Jan. 23) 564: The house?.was filled as far as $300 could fill it, barring "the dead heads." 1925 Robinson Wagon Show 136: Altogether we passed in about seventy-five "deadheads."

2. a sponger or loafer; DEADBEAT 1847 Nat. Police Gaz (Feb. 20) 186: The usual local loungers of a fillage tavern?"Dead heads!" said the stranger, motioning his head derisively towards the trio at the stove. 1889 Barrere & Leland Dict. Slang 298: Dead-head (American) one who stands about at a bar to drink at the expense of others.

7. a dull or lazy individual; (specf.) a person who is present at a meeting, party, or the like, but who does not participate or contribute. 1929Bookman (July) 525: I'm no deadhead, brother, and I'm always good for a job on the C.&M.

Yet another definition is, or was, a camp follower of the Grateful Dead. They used to swarm in my neighborhood whenever there was a concert, and they overlap quite a lot with the above definitions. Some doubtless great guys, but in mass with a propensity to mooch, steal, and live out of cars.

Abe Lincoln was called a Sucker (from the Sucker State) in a song from 1860. (American Memory). First verse of this political lyric-

Honest Old Abe

Ye Democrats list to my story, Ye Douglasites all give me heed; Though your Candidate's running for glory, He's not making very good speed. But out on the wide rolling prairie A tall SUCKER has taken the course, Who will wind up the race in a hurry And distance your Stubby-tailed horse.

There also is a song from 1855, "The Sucker State, respectfully dedicated to all Suckerdom." Also American Memory

Blood suckers was already an expression in the 19th century. Sucker in the sense of a dupe is 18th century. Suck- to pump. "The file sucked the noodle's brains, the deep one drew out of the fool all he knew." From The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811; perhaps taken from The Scoundrel's Dictionary, 1754.

None of this helps with the "song," however, since the connotations of the words in the first verse are unknown.

Over 35 years ago I heard Art Rosenbaum and Allan Block sing this at a concert in CT; it made an impression (had never heard of Crockett or Fields Ward or Wade Ward at the time!) and Art said "I dedicate this song to my landlord." Definitely preceded the Grateful Dead, just as Joyce had little or no influence on Shakespeare.

A friend of mine came back from a trip in the Appalachian area where he was told that Deadheads and Suckers referred to tobacco growing, picking off the dead heads on the plant and the suckers which were either insects, worms or caterpillars of some sort which would ruin a crop.

1. In the Depression (which hit the rural south in the early 1920s, years before the nation as a whole) those opposing Roosevelt and the New Deal might feel angry enough to despise "layabouts," "loafers" - hence deadheads - and those who took "freeloader jobs" on the public purse under the W.P.A. - hence bloodsuckers, or suckers.

OR

2. If the song is older, it could go back to WWI and refer to those who dodged war service - hence "When good men are dying every day."

3. It might be a combination of the two, if the "good men are dying" chorus phrase came from a lost WWI song that got attached to a Depression song.

These might be some worthwhile directions to pursue in tracking down this song's roots.

Bob, I agree with you on the soldier explanation for the chorus lyric -- that just makes sense to me. I wonder if another graft produced the version I know: an outlaw song with a soldier song. I know it's a fraught exercise to deduce the time period of a traditional song from its lyrics, but it's tempting in this case to read about the cops "riding after" our protagonist and imagine a mounted posse.

The definitions of "deadhead" that Gargoyle posted above on 7/10/03 are all 19th century vintage. Perhaps the song predates WWI... Since both deadhead and sucker were in use by the 1860s, it might even be of Civil War provenance.

There is another definition of "sucker" that hasn't been mentioned: a con artist's mark, a victim of a scam, as in "There's a sucker born every minute."